The musings of a former office worker stuck in his house applying for jobs, when he would rather be out on the water.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

My Commute

My drive home is about 3 miles, or 6 minutes, depending on how you want to gauge it. Either way works for me. My rode home is puncutated by the usual sights and sounds of a commute. A few traffic lights, some guy cutting you off, someone who doesn't know where their turn is, a very slow 18 wheeler. All the normal stuff. My commute is just a little bit more abbreviated than the average commuter.

It is different from a normal commute in one way though. The Prudential office park near my house has recently converted into a zoo. Herds of deer roam across the expansive lawn. Groundhogs and rabbits crawl around the fields. And redtail hawks hunt mercilessly from the tops of light poles at street side.

Now all of these are normal sights in Philadelphia suburbs. But the frequency of the sightings is what astonishes me. I have seen a herd of no less than 5 deer, every day for the past 2 months. And these deer are often 10 or 15 feet from the road. And most people drive by without even so much a sideways glance. I've seen the redtail hawk hunting every day for the past 3 weeks,the only days I haven't seen him hunting, I've seen him eating. And the only days I haven't seen a groundhog or rabbit alive are on the days when they are dinner for the hawk.

Unfortunately, with the deer so close to the road, it is only a matter of time before the only natural predator the deer has left strikes. The car. So far so good, but I don't want to be there he strikes, the car guarding his dinnner is never a pretty sight.

Keep an eye out and see what you can see. When you throw in the coyote I saw last weekend with my girlfriend A, I've seen just about everything there is to see. Minus a cougar.